Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Assange Accuses Journalists Of Jewish Conspiracy Against Him And WikiLeaks

By Jerry Smith Mar 2 2011
assangewatch.blogspot.com

A column published in the British magazine Private Eye by Ian Hislop describes a phone conversation Hislop had with Julian Assange on Feb. 16 where he claims that Assange said he was the victim of a conspiracy by Jewish journalists to smear him and his website WikiLeaks.

Responding on Twitter to Hislop and the Private Eye article Assange said:

"Hislop has distorted, invented or misremembered almost every significant claim and phrase. In particular, 'Jewish conspiracy' is completely false, in spirit and in word. It is serious and upsetting. Rather than correct a smear, Mr. Hislop has attempted, perhaps not surprisingly, to justify one smear with another in the same direction.”.

Assange also said on Twitter:

“That he (Hislop) has a reputation for this, and is famed to have received more libel suits in the U.K. than any other journalist as a result, does not mean that it is right.”

“WikiLeaks promotes the ideal of ‘scientific journalism’, where the underlying evidence of all articles is available to the reader precisely in order to avoid these type of distortions. We treasure our strong Jewish support and staff, just as we treasure the support from pan-Arab democracy activists and others who share our hope for a just world.”

Hislop admits that he did not take notes or record Assange during their conversation and said:

“I thought the best thing to do was to publish as much as I could remember of our conversation.”

Hislop claims that Assange called him to complain about the coverage WikiLeaks was getting and to complian about a previous Private Eye story criticizing Wikileaks’ association with Israel Shamir. Shamir is regarded as a Holocaust denier and has said:

"I think it is every Muslim's and Christian's duty to deny the Holocaust, to reject this belief, just as Abraham and Moses rejected the idols. Any person who confesses to God should deny the Holocaust."

"As for the accusation of 'Holocaust denial', my family lost too many of its sons and daughters for me to deny the facts of Jewish tragedy, but I do deny its religious salvific significance implied in the very term 'Holocaust'. I do deny its metaphysical uniqueness, I do deny the morbid cult of Holocaust and I think every God-fearing man, a Jew, a Christian or a Muslim should reject it as Abraham rejected and smashed idols."

Hislop claims that Assange wanted him to know that he’d hardly met Shamir, and that Private Eye had been taken in by reporters for the Guardian who hate Assange and who are “Jewish”.

Hislop also said that Assange thought that the article on Shamir was part of a campaign by Jewish reporters in London to smear WikiLeaks.

Hislop's article in Private Eye alleges that Assange told him that the conspiracy against him and WikiLeaks was led by The Guardian, and included the newspaper’s editor Alan Rusbridger, investigations editor David Leigh, and the London journalist who recently reviewed two books for The Sunday Times of London about WikiLeaks, John Kampfner.

Hislop said he told Assange that Rusbridger was not Jewish and that Assange responded to him with because Rusbridger and Leigh, who is Jewish, were brothers-in-law, that Rusbridger was “sort of Jewish”.

Hislop also claims that later in the conversation Assange asked him to “forget the Jewish thing,” but continued to insist that there was a conspiracy against WikiLeaks based on the friendship between Rusbridger, Leigh and Kampfner.

Responding on Twitter to Hislop's article, WikiLeaks said:

"Because WikiLeaks has some Jewish staff and enjoys wide spread Jewish support, its staff have frequently been smeared by its opponents, political or competitive, as being agents of the Mossad or of George Soros. These smears are completely false."

"Smears against WikiLeaks cross the geopolitical spectrum. Ian Hislop, editor of the weekly satirical current affairs magazine Private Eye, recently wrote an article 'as much as he could remember', about an off the record conversation with Julian Assange who complained that a previous article, appearing in Private Eye, was based on falsehoods spread by opponents and calculated to undermine WikiLeaks strong Jewish support."

Assange is at Ellingham Hall in Norfolk,UK under house arrest and fighting extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning about allegations of rape and sexual molestation made against him by Sofia Wilen and Anna Ardin, which he denies.